If The Ties That Bind Ever Do Come Loose
by sexy.sassy.southern.me
Summary: inspired by the song Better Dig Two, JaSam, ensemble casting, history changes, OFC (Lila, Soarsed)... Sam's lost two important people in her life. She lost a daughter first, and now she's lost Jason. When she's just on the verge of giving up, will the ties that came loose and took her daughter, her one true love, retie themselves? And how will it affect her those around her? r
1. Chapter 1

_I told you on the day we wed  
I was gonna love you 'til I's dead  
Made you wait 'til our wedding night  
That's the first and the last time I'll wear white_

So if the ties that bind ever do come loose  
Tie 'em in a knot like a hangman's noose  
Cause I'll go to heaven or I'll go to hell  
Before I'll see you with someone else

Put me in the ground  
Put me six foot down  
And let the stone say:

"Here lies the girl whose only crutch  
Was loving one man just a little too much"  
If you go before I do  
I'm gonna tell the gravedigger that he better dig two

Jason's funeral had only just ended and Sam sighed as she stood graveside, shielding their infant son's face from the wind, the misting rain. The rest of the town could say whatever the hell it was that they wanted to say, but she knew it beyond a shadow of a doubt, down to her bones, with every fiber in her being..

Jason was NOT dead. Jason was alive, he was still out there somewhere. Her mother and her sisters, Jason's family members didn't understand why she kept searching, why she kept insisting he wasn't dead, he couldn't be.

And if it killed her, she was going to find him. Their son needed his father, she needed her rock and her only love, the light in her dark times. So far, since she'd been looking and digging, she'd found nothing. But then again, the divers, they hadn't found a body, and if there wasn't a body, well..

Then there might not be a death.

She sighed as her sister Molly tugged on her hand and said "Come on Sam.. Danny's already sick, you've been sick, you don't really need to stand here in the rain all night."

"I told the gravedigger he should have dug two." she muttered quietly to herself as she turned, followed her mother and her sisters out of the graveyard.

She'd gotten just outside the gate when she turned because she heard a twig break as if someone were walking where she'd just left. When she turned around, she saw nobody, so she put it off to overactive imagination.

"Are you sure you want to go back to the penthouse?" Alexis asked the oldest of her children. Sam nodded and said "I have to, Mom, what if he's.."

"Sam, he's gone, sweetie."

"He's not gone, mother. Give me my keys, I'll drive home myself." Sam said as she stormed away with her keys in hand, fastening her son into the car seat.

Alexis sighed as she watched her oldest child jogging away, wishing there were something she could do to ease the pain.

Little did any of them realize, Sam was right.. Jason was still out there, alive.. And just now, in the graveyard, had Sam turned around just a fraction sooner, she'd have had her thoughts confirmed.

Jason stood in the doorway of the crypt they'd just put his coffin in, sighed to himself as he raked his hand through his hair, reminded himself why all of this was necessary, how much danger Sam and Danny were in if he came back right now, before he'd taken out the man trying to take down Sonny's organization, take down everyone connected to Sonny or Jason.

"Damn it, why does it have to be this way." he wondered aloud, sighing as he turned the collar up on his leather jacket, having second and third thoughts already, about his having agreed to help Anna Devaine catch this person she was after before they hurt a lot of people in Port Charles.

He only knew two things right now, and those were a – he fully intended to draw first blood, because the night he'd been 'shot' as part of his cover, someone had actually tried to kill him and two – he hated seeing Sam cry.. he'd seen her crying just now, it was already killing him.

"This has to happen for her own good. If I stay, she and Danny are a target. The only way to change that, fix it, is to take out this person before they do something, take us all down."

_Well,  
It won't be whiskey, won't be meth  
It'll be your name on my last breath  
If divorce or death ever do us part  
The coroner will call it a broken heart_

So put me in the ground  
Put me six foot down  
And let the stone say:

"Here lies the girl whose only crutch  
Was loving one man just a little too much"  
If you go before I do  
I'm gonna tell the gravedigger that he better dig two

Dig two  
Ooh, ooh

I took your name when I took those vows  
I meant 'em back then and I mean 'em right now,  
Oh, right now

If the ties that bind ever do come loose  
If "forever" ever ends for you  
If that ring gets a little too tight  
You might as well read me my last rites

Back in their apartment, Sam stood in front of their shared closet, holding Danny, one of Jason's large black shirts practically draping her as she let the tears flow, dug around in the closet for the box of memories, the things she regretted in life, things she'd done that she wished she could undo, pictures, letters.. Basically, the box was everything that made her who she was right now, this second. She looked down at the wedding band on her hand, bit her lower lip.

"Jason, I wish you were here right now.. If you're out there, babe, please.. Come back to me." she said as she slipped the wedding band that'd been on his finger until a few days ago, when this nightmare all started for her, down into the box.

She lie on the bed, her son beside her, her nose buried in his t shirt. How long until the cologne faded? How long until she couldn't remember his smirk, his laugh, the way his hand always found the small of her back in a crowded room when he knew she was a little more than nervous.

Danny snored lightly, so she got up, put him softly into the crib a few feet away from her bed, before looking through the box of her life, her memories.

Then she finally tried to get some sleep. And when sleep finally came to her, she dreamt of Jason, of a daughter she never got to hold or touch, talk to.

Had Lila lived, she'd have been 19 today. Would she have been a 'daddy's girl?'

She dreamt of a life where she had both Jason and her daughter back here, with her.

But could that dream be about to become a reality?

A FEW NOTES FROM THE WRITER

_Okay, so this song Better Dig Two, by the Band Perry inspired the story.. So I wrote the first chapter around the lyrics to it. If you haven't heard it, go listen now, it's this amazing and haunting, gritty song, if you really try, you can sort of picture Sam's struggle with grief having just lost Jason, as you read the story._

_That being said, I have made a lot of changes. The __**biggest**__ of them is that __**Lila was Jason's**__, not Sonny's. __**Jason and Sam have been together for a lot longer in my fic than they have on the show**__, I'm saying maybe since high school, __**before his wreck**__. All of that will come out in the story, because his wreck then and Lila's supposed death are a big part of the background for this story.. Most of that will be in flashbacks, stuff like that._

_Yes, Lila will be an original character and yes, she will be paired.. As of right now, looking into either Johnny or someone else, I'm sort of contemplating maybe bringing back a guy from the past._

_Lila is 19, she's been soarsed and yes, I realize she's a good deal younger than Johnny or Spinelli, the others._

_**COMPLETELY SKIPPING THE TMK LINE & THE DEATHS THAT HAVE OCCURED BECAUSE OF THAT. BEFORE ANYONE ASKS ME OR SOMETHING.**_

_**MIGHT OR MIGHT NOT BE FOLLOWING THE CURRENT PLOT WHILE ALSO HAVING MY OWN TWISTS.**_

_**Review if you like it so far, I'll work on uploading the rest as it comes.. This came on while I was watching GH today, on my Itunes, and the yen to write it down struck. I'm posting it, but I'm honestly not sure if you guys will like it or not, or if it's even any good.**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**One Month Later**_

_**An Hour Outside of Athens, Georgia**_

"And there's my little college girl." Blanche Brown said as Lila walked into her parent's house, laundry basket under her arm, soaked by the rain that'd been falling steadily all afternoon. "Hey Mom.. What's for dinner tonight?" Lila asked as she stopped in the den, watching the news .. She'd been following this whole 'hitman killed in Port Charles' story since it unfolded, she couldn't really explain why to be honest..

Just something familiar about the man's eyes when she'd seen the picture they flashed of him onto the screen. "Why are they runnin this on our news anyway? This is Georgia, makes no sense."

"The man was a well known member of the Corinthos Mob." Blanche said as she added internally, _ " The man was also your father.. Or he would have been if Mommy hadn't fixed that, back then.. Those two didn't deserve you, baby girl."_

"Mama?"

"Yeah?"

"You okay, you kinda went all funny lookin in the face for a moment there." Lila asked as she wove her long and thin fingers through her hair, her other hand on her hip as she looked at her mother's facial expression currently.

She worried about her mother a lot, her mother was always sick or something, so she'd never really gotten to do much as a kid, but she hadn't minded.. She'd taken care of her with no complaints, she'd made excuses when her mama drank too much and got a little out of control and the neighbors called the cops or something.

Her mama had been through a lot before she'd come along, so she sort of gave her the benefit of the doubt, she sort of let some things she did or said slide when said or done.

Lately though, her mama acted like she was feeling guilty about something, she'd been acting that way all week, since the first airing of the news, the missing or dead hitman story had aired.

Her mom actually had one of her 'spells' that night and Lila had had to leave work at the campus bar at least two hours early, come all the way back to her mother's house to take care of her, get her calm down again.

The neighbors said she was wandering around outside, babbling about something coming out, how she didn't want it to, she had a bad feeling.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Lila. Just go sit down, Mommy will fix you something to eat, okay? Fried okra and grilled chicken alright?"

Now Lila really suspected something, those were two of her favorite foods and her mother really never fixed them unless something was going on or she was feeling guilty or something.

"Mom?"

"Yeah?"

"Is there something wrong?"

"No, why do you keep askin me that?"

"Because you like never cook those things for me unless you have an episode and you hurt me, or you're feeling guilty about something or it's my birthday?" Lila asked as she scanned the small, cheery yellow and blue kitchen for hidden bottles of alcohol, hidden painkillers, anything that could be causing her mother to act just plain weird.

"I'm not takin anything, or drinkin again, I promise." her mom said as she walked into the kitchen to start on their food for the evening.

Lila walked down the hallway to her mother's study/home office and reading area. She'd left her A&P book in the room earlier in the week when she came back here to type a final, avoid the crowd in the campus library and she needed it to study for a test she had on Friday.

The door was locked.

"What the hell?" she muttered to herself as she tried again then sighed.. Something was really wrong with her mother.

It wasn't alcohol or pills this time, it was something much more serious, it had to be if the study was locked.

"Mama, I need my A&P book. I have that test tomorrow.. I need to study again tonight." Lila said as she walked back into the kitchen, sat down at the small white wooden table, in a ladderback chair, waited on her mom to answer her.

"It's on the counter."

"I left it in the study though."

"I know, but you need to stay out of the study for right now, sweetie.. Mommy's been writing again."

"Really?"

"Mhmm."

So that explained her odd behavior. At least until the phone rang and she stared at it as if it were snakes hissing instead of a ringing telephone.

"Aren't you going to answer that, Mom?"

"I'll let the machine get it, Lila. Just go study, I'll call you down when your food's ready, princess."

"Okay then.." Lila muttered as she walked up to her room, sat down at her desk and logged onto her computer to check her email.

A few emails from classmates, some of her friends, a reminder from a professor about an upcoming lecture.

She'd been about to log off, read them all later, when she noticed that she had one from an address she didn't recognize.

Clicking it, she read the email with a raised brow, her breath catching in her throat.. What was the dead hitman doing emailing her?

The email had an attachment, she clicked it to let it be scanned for safety, then opened it, read with wide and amazed eyes as the attachment turned out to be some kind of file.. About how she really came to exist, how she'd been taken from her real mother and father by the woman downstairs.

She printed the documents, folded them and shoved them into the pocket of her Georgia hoodie as she stood and walked out onto the small balcony attached to her room, sitting down on the pale whitewashed wooden floor, not paying any attention to the rain as it soaked her.

She held up her cell phone, reading the documents farther, then as she finished, she was shocked to find herself actually buying into this whole bizarre story.

She thought back to all of her questions as a kid, growing up, about why her father wasn't there, her mother's vague answers that made no real sense, some hints she might have dropped.

Standing in front of her desk with her hand in her long brown hair, she slipped an elastic in her hair and sat back down, logged back on.

She copied the name of the hitman, who'd emailed her the file and pasted it into an IM box.. She wasn't sure why, but she wanted to know why he was contacing her, if everyone who loved him or might miss him, thought he was dead.

LilaGAGrrl: Umm, Hi? You sent me an email sir, got me all kinds of curious...

She waited for a while and then muttered, "Might have been a mistake."

When her mother called up the stairs for her to come down, eat, she jogged down the stairs, leaving the computer logged on, just in case.

"Wow.. You were really hungry tonight, princess." her mother remarked, a slight slurring of her words making Lila groan inwardly as she said "Mom.. Where is it.. Where the hell is the alcohol?"

"I'm not.. I haven't been drinking, I.." her mother said as Lila shook her head, got up and dumped her plate out the back door, her appetite gone.

"Well something's wrong, Mom."

"Earlier, that call.. It just upset me."

"Why? Who was it?"

"Your father."

"But you told me he was dead, mom, when I asked when I was 7. Remember?"

" There's something I need to tell you, Lila.. I need you to.. I need you to understand that I did what I did for your own best interest.. Those people, they didn't deserve to have a child.. And damn it, I'd just had mine taken from me.."

"Mom.. What did you do?"

"You're not.. You're not my daughter."

"What do you mean I'm not your daughter?" Lila asked as she remembered the odd email from the man who's face had been splashed all over the news for the past week in bits and pieces.. Was the hitman telling the truth?

And if he wasn't dead, then why the hell was he hiding? What was he mixed up in?

"I saw you in the nursery, I had to take you.. I just.. I saw her talking to you, singing to you. A common killer's wife.. And he was having a child when I, a law abiding citizen, a god fearing woman had just lost her only daughter because her father proved me to be an unfit mother. It wasn't fair."

Lila sank down in the chair, the weight of her mother's slurred words hitting her as she blinked in shock, asked calmly, stiffly, "You kidnapped me?"

"And had a guy I was dating at the time, who worked on the staff forge papers to declare you legally dead.. Then I moved us around until they stopped looking for you.. They stopped when we moved here, when you were 9.. I thought I'd get away with it, I thought you'd never find out, Lila.. I did this because I love you.. I didn't want you growing up in violence with parents too young to be parents."

"What do you mean?"

"Your father, he.. He'd just started working for Mr. Corinthos back then.."

"So basically, just because you thought he didn't deserve me, they didn't deserve me, you took me from them? How could you?" Lila asked, trying hard to keep her voice down.. All she needed was one of the neighbors getting too nosy, calling the local police out here again.

Because the more her mother talked, the more Lila got sickened by her words and the more Lila contemplated just letting her mother go up for what she'd done.

But then she'd stop and think about the life she had.. And it still made her want to call the cops and tell them what her mother done, all of it.

"I can't stay here with you. I'm leaving, I.. I need to think."

"Don't leave me, Lila, don't you dare walk out that door, girl, you listen to me.. You wouldn't have gotten the love you got here, with them, I can assure you that. You need to be grateful."

"No, what I need to do ,Blanche is be alone and process this, figure out what I'm gonna do. Without you around."

She grabbed her keys and ran out to her car, not caring that she left all her laundry in the washer downstairs. She wanted to get as far away from what her mother just unloaded on her as humanly possible.

Once she was back in her dorm, she logged back on to her IM and Email account and saw a response to her earlier IM.

"Where are you?"

She typed back quickly, "Athens Georgia at the university. Why?"

"Because I'm coming to you." she got a message back a few minutes later.

"How far away are you, sir?"

"Almost in Athens now.. I'm at some hotel near the campus, actually." Jason responded as he smiled to himself a little..

In reaching out, finding his daughter, he was killing two birds with one stone, really.. He nor Sam ever really felt like Lila was dead.. They'd grieved and cried and wondered, did the whole what if thing for years, but deep down, he'd always just felt like something was wrong.. Like they'd been lied to.. So had Sam, but she'd eventually given up.

Jason would have let it go too, but the night he'd been shot at the dock, he'd been waiting on someone who'd sent him a tip about his daughter, their daughter.. And then he'd been shot, and he'd woken up in another county, no clue of who he was at the time, no way to figure out who he'd been or what'd happened to him.

But then he'd started remembering, thanks to seeing his face and name on the news and he'd tracked down the person who had information on the whereabouts of their daughter, Lila.. And he'd promised himself that before he went back home, he was going to find her, bring her back with him.

"Is it the Red Bird Hotel and Lounge?"

"Yeah.. How the hell do you know about this place?"

"Prom afterparty. I didn't go, just heard about it.. I'll be there in 10." Lila said as she signed off, grabbed her keys, a bag just in case she didn't leave.

Finally finding out the truth about what really happened to you as a kid changed a lot of your perspective.. She was reevaluating everything..

As Jason logged off the IM he'd been using, then deleted his email address, so nobody could find him just yet, he made one more call..

Sam's voice as she answered was almost enough to break him, but he listened to her talking, crying.. He wanted to say something, but he knew he couldn't, not until he was completely sure that this girl was really their daughter, and she was fine, not in any danger, like the anonymous tipster seemed to indicate she and Danny, others connected to him might be in because of some past dealings he and Sonny had with another mob family.

"Not too much longer, Sam, I'll be back home." he muttered to himself as he paced the darkened cheap motel room, waiting on their daughter to show up so he could finish this and make sure she was fine, she wasn't in any danger.

Meanwhile in Port Charles, Sam sat gaping at her phone.. Somehow, Jason's deactivated phone, which they hadn't found but she'd had cut off to discourage sick jokes and false hopes.. It'd called her.

She called the phone company, explained what happened as the woman said "Some guy called and said that you two had a disagreement and you accidentally cut off the line, but you wanted it back on."

"Who?"

"I'm assuming, Jason Morgan, the owner of the line?"

"That can't be, ma'am.. He's been dead or missing for a while now." Sam said as she hung up in shock and then texted Spinelli, asking him to try and hack into Jason's cell phone..

"But you had it deactivated, Fair Samantha."

" I know, but someone went over me and had it reactivated." Sam said as she added, "I'm not insane, Spinelli, something's going on."

But the question was, what was going on? Who was behind this? Was Jason alive, or was someone playing a headgame with her?

A FEW NOTES FROM THE WRITER

_Okay, so this song Better Dig Two, by the Band Perry inspired the story.. So I wrote the first chapter around the lyrics to it. If you haven't heard it, go listen now, it's this amazing and haunting, gritty song, if you really try, you can sort of picture Sam's struggle with grief having just lost Jason, as you read the story._

_That being said, I have made a lot of changes. The __**biggest**__ of them is that __**Lila was Jason's**__, not Sonny's. __**Jason and Sam have been together for a lot longer in my fic than they have on the show**__, I'm saying maybe since high school, __**before his wreck**__. All of that will come out in the story, because his wreck then and Lila's supposed death are a big part of the background for this story.. Most of that will be in flashbacks, stuff like that._

_Yes, Lila will be an original character and yes, she will be paired.. As of right now, looking into either Johnny or someone else, I'm sort of contemplating maybe bringing back a guy from the past._

_Lila is 19, she's been soarsed and yes, I realize she's a good deal younger than Johnny or Spinelli, the others._

_**COMPLETELY SKIPPING THE TMK LINE & THE DEATHS THAT HAVE OCCURED BECAUSE OF THAT. BEFORE ANYONE ASKS ME OR SOMETHING.**_

_**MIGHT OR MIGHT NOT BE FOLLOWING THE CURRENT PLOT WHILE ALSO HAVING MY OWN TWISTS.**_

_**Review if you like it so far, I'll work on uploading the rest as it comes.. This came on while I was watching GH today, on my Itunes, and the yen to write it down struck. I'm posting it, but I'm honestly not sure if you guys will like it or not, or if it's even any good.**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**One Month Later - Later That Same Night  
**_

_**An Hour Outside of Athens, Georgia  
**_

"The hell is this fuck behind me doing anyway?" Lila muttered as she was once again, blinded by the bright eurolights of an SUV swerving all over the road behind her, almost as if it were trying to run her off the road or something. She got a really bad feeling, and she got to a red light, the SUV pulled up next to her and the window rolled down, someone inside said stiffly, "Pull over, ma'am."

"Oh no. Not just no, but hell no." Lila said as she stomped the gas on her own car, and flew through the red light after quickly making sure nothing was coming. Not that it'd be anything there, this late an hour on an empty small town road in Georgia, but hey, ya never know. She spotted the hotel coming into view, and she spun her car into the parking lot, jumped out, aimed her key at the door and bolted to the room that the man who claimed he was her father told her he was staying in while he was in town.

She practically beat the door down and when the door opened and she saw him, she didn't think, she just hugged the man and said in a quivering voice, "This guy, he tried to blind the hell out of me and then at a red light he told me to pull over up the road.. I don't think he followed me here.."

"Get inside. Damn it, they figured out what I was trying to do somehow." Jason said as he stepped to the side, his heart racing.. He'd finally found their daughter. He wasn't about to lose her again, not if he could help it. Once he'd shut the door, he looked at her and then said quietly, "That man was dangerous.. He's an enemy of the man I worked for, he was out to get and end anyone who was connected to my boss. It started a long time ago."

Lila nodded, sitting quietly, taking it all in as she peeked through the blinds and then said "What you said about being my father, my mother not being the woman who raised me sir.. My.. Err, Blanche, I mean Blanche.. She told me.."

"Did she tell you that the man who just chased you probably put her up to it?"

"Huh?"

"He used her to kidnap you. To get to me, hurt me."

"Okay, whoa, wait.. So the mob is the reason some crazy lady kidnapped me from the hospital and took me on the run?"

"Yeah.. She was supposed to turn you over to the Jerome family.. But she took you and ran instead, had someone draw up papers declaring you dead. Now that Julian's back, trying to get even with Sonny, me, everyone we love is a target." Jason said as he asked, "The car.. What was it?"

"It was an SUV sir.. Tahoe I think.."

"Color?"

"Dark blue or black, I.. I really couldn't tell, too damn worried about getting the hell out of Dodge. This guy.. Is he the one who supposedly shot ya?"

"Yeah, and if someone who worked for him hadn't decided they couldn't live with what that asshole had them involved in as far as you being taken was concerned, you'd have been alright, you'd have been safe."

"Sir, trust me.. I was raised around hunting and guns, ammo.. Either way it goes, I'm safe.. Besides, I'm in MMA training." Lila admitted as she looked at the man who she knew now couldn't possibly be lying about being her father. The story was so far fetched it couldn't possibly be a lie, even though it all sounded like some B level mob movie.

Meanwhile, Sam Morgan approached the night desk in the building her daughter lived in on campus at the University of Georgia. It'd taken a lot of strings being pulled, a lot of doing, but she'd tracked Lila here. She knew Lila was alive now. Now she just had to convince her that everything she knew up until this point in her life was a total lie.

"Excuse me, ma'am.. Do you need assistance?"

"My daughter, she's a student here.. Lila Brown?"

"You don't look like her mother.. She's been here before, security had to take her out, actually, the woman reeked of whiskey, was obviously completely and totally drunk."

"That woman is NOT her mother. I am her mother. The authorities are en route to her house, actually, because kidnapping happens to be a crime, and this woman did that to me, with Lila, a long time ago. I've recently stumbled onto something, I'm afraid my daughter might be in danger. Now I'm gonna ask you one more time, sir.. Where in the hell is my daughter's dorm room." Sam asked as she shifted her infant son around from one side of her body to the other. All she'd come to do was get her daughter, who she'd thought lost to her until a night ago, back home safely.

"It's on the second floor, room 234. But she's not there, she just left about 20 minutes ago. Ran past here with an overnight bag on her shoulder, mumbling or something. You might try her mother's place? It's about an hour out of town."

"That won't be necessary, sir. If you have her cell phone number of course?"

"Sorry ma'am.. She mostly keeps to herself." the night clerk admitted as Sam muttered, "Yeah.. Seeing exactly what you mean about boarding schools and college campuses, their security, Carly." as she looked down at the things she'd found on Jason's personal laptop when she'd done a little snooping because a locked file made her curious.

When she'd finally gotten the file's unlocked, the contents had her both angry and afraid. So, she'd started the search for her daughter again, using the things Jason found. And this time, she'd hit paydirt.

She'd also sort of figured out that Jason was most likely still alive, trying to do what he could to keep them all safe right now. She hoped that he'd found her, was on his way back to Port Charles now, but if he wasn't, she was going to find their daughter, no matter what she had to do to accomplish that. She'd done the same with their son, Danny, when she'd suspected that Heather and Todd swapped her child with Tea's.

And she had Danny, so if Lila were alive? She wasn't leaving Georgia without her little girl.

She stopped in the lobby and leaned against a wall, typed in Lila's name on a few social networking sites. Luckily, one of them had her number on it, so Sam saved it to her own contacts list and then once she was in the car again, after strapping Danny into his seat, she dialed it, waiting.

Lila raised her brow at the ringing phone. If it were Blanche, she was not answering, she was beyond pissed at this point, because her father was telling her everything now, and the more he told her about how and why she'd been taken, the madder she got. Suffice to say, she was pissed at this point, and Jason snickered a little as he realized that she'd clearly gotten the Davis temper.

"Calm down. Everything's okay now, dad's here.. And we're going to go home, okay?"

"I know, but I'm.. God I'm just so damn mad right now, I wanna go back to that house and ring her neck. Making you and my mother pay for something that was not your problem, making me grow up too fast, having to take care of her. She's freaking insane, I had to be the mother. It just.. It pisses me off, sir."

"You can call me dad, not sir."

Lila nodded, going silent, taking a sip of the soda on the table in front of her, biting her thumb in thought as she asked, "My mom.. Does she know?"

"Not yet.. But if she starts to dig around like I think she will, because I called her.. She will soon."

"She's probably going to be pissed at you for faking your death, you realize this, right?"

"Most likely.. And I'll handle it, I won't blame her.. I had to do this. You were all in danger because of me. You're all still in danger, but I realize now I was stupid to run."

Lila's cell phone rang again and she looked at the caller id then asked, "Any idea who this is?"

Jason nodded as he saw the number. "That would be your real mother. I told you she'd start digging and put all this together. I just hope she hasn't come here looking for you.. Especially if what you told me when you came in is what I think it is."

"Me too."

Lila answered the phone and the second Sam heard her voice, she smiled a little. "Lila?"

"M-ma'am?"

"Call me mom, not ma'am. Where are you?"

Lila looked at her father who went ahead and nodded to her, letting her know it was okay to tell her. "I'm at this little hotel 20 minutes from the university.. It's called the Red Bird Motel / Lounge."

"And your brother and I are on our way. I wanted you to know, Lila.. I never wanted this to happen. I had no idea you were still alive.. And I've spent so many years wishing you were still alive, with your father and me, your little brother."

"It's okay, Mom. Just be careful, please?" Lila said as she hung up and then looked at her dad as she said quietly, "I have a migraine. It's been one hell of a week."

Jason laughed as he dug around, found a bottle of Tylenol he'd bought for his own headache earlier. "Two of them usually work for mine." he said as he held out the bottle and then said "I'm glad I found you. Your mom and I.. We went through a lot after we lost you.. And we both grieved a long time.. Now maybe we can be a family again."

"We can, dad. I don't blame either of you.. I blame that crazy woman who took me from you guys. Wow.. This is one hell of a story to tell my own kids one day.. If I ever have any. School sort of consumes my time."

"What are you majoring in?"

"Medicine.. I sort of want to be a doctor.. I'm not sure if I want to do that or physical therapy, really, though, Dad."

"That should make your grandmother Monica very happy.. Now your grandmother Alexis. She might not be too thrilled.. She's a lawyer, and so far, your mother's a private investigator, your aunt Molly isn't in college yet, but she wants to be a writer and Kristina wants to work in Fashion... She has no lawyers in the family."

"Aww.. Kinda like helpin people more than arguin with 'em though, sir." Lila admitted as Jason laughed and said "Me too. I would have been a doctor if things hadn't happened in life.."

"The wreck?"

"How'd you know?"

"I googled your name before I emailed back, sir.. No offense, but I wasn't sure if you were being legit, or you were some old crazy guy who wanted to put me in the back of a van, drop me at the bottom of a hole and later make a ladysuit out of my skin.. Had to be safe."

"Let me guess.. Horror movie buff."

"Pretty much, sir."

The door was knocked on about 10 minutes later and Lila opened the door warily, Jason right behind her. Sam took one look at her daughter and her 'dead' husband and Lila took Danny as soon as she saw the color draining from her mother's tan face.

"Now I see where I get the fainting in shock thing from." Lila joked as she held her little brother, just looking at him, breathing in the fresh, new baby smell, kissing him softly on the head.

The family was all back together now.. Now would they be able to stay together? And what lie ahead when they returned to Port Charles?

A FEW NOTES FROM THE WRITER

_Okay, so this song Better Dig Two, by the Band Perry inspired the story.. So I wrote the first chapter around the lyrics to it. If you haven't heard it, go listen now, it's this amazing and haunting, gritty song, if you really try, you can sort of picture Sam's struggle with grief having just lost Jason, as you read the story._

_That being said, I have made a lot of changes. The __**biggest**__ of them is that __**Lila was Jason's**__, not Sonny's. __**Jason and Sam have been together for a lot longer in my fic than they have on the show**__, I'm saying maybe since high school, __**before his wreck**__. All of that will come out in the story, because his wreck then and Lila's supposed death are a big part of the background for this story.. Most of that will be in flashbacks, stuff like that._

_Yes, Lila will be an original character and yes, she will be paired.. As of right now, looking into either Johnny or someone else, I'm sort of contemplating maybe bringing back a guy from the past._

_Lila is 19, she's been soarsed and yes, I realize she's a good deal younger than Johnny or Spinelli, the others._

_**COMPLETELY SKIPPING THE TMK LINE & THE DEATHS THAT HAVE OCCURED BECAUSE OF THAT. BEFORE ANYONE ASKS ME OR SOMETHING.**_

_**MIGHT OR MIGHT NOT BE FOLLOWING THE CURRENT PLOT WHILE ALSO HAVING MY OWN TWISTS.**_

_**Review if you like it so far, I'll work on uploading the rest as it comes.. This came on while I was watching GH today, on my Itunes, and the yen to write it down struck. I'm posting it, but I'm honestly not sure if you guys will like it or not, or if it's even any good.**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**One Month Later - The Next Morning  
**_

_**En Route to Port Charles, Family Bonding Time, Aww.  
**_

_**Alexis' LakeHouse too. Davis Girls, yay! 3**_

Jason raised a brow as he got back into his Suburban and heard some country song playing almost full blast. "What in the hell are we listening to?" he attempted to ask his 19 year old daughter who was singing along, making her baby brother laugh and make cooing sounds at her when she'd make faces as she sang.

Sam shook her head and said "Well, at least it's not that annoying crap Kristina listens to. Besides, this song is sort of catchy."

"Sam.. Baby, all he's saying is 'It's Time To Take My Drunk Ass Home." Jason pointed out as Sam laughed a little and shrugged as she said quietly, "This should be interesting when we get back to Port Charles with her, to say the least. And we've been saying we wanted to do a family vacation for a while now."

"We have." Jason said as he smiled, brushed his lips softly against her knuckles and smiled at her, muttering, "God I missed you two so much. And having our daughter back.."

"I know... Let's just get the hell out of Georgia before something goes wrong, yeah, baby?" Sam asked, pleading with her eyes as she leaned over and kissed her husband, adding, "I'm still so very pissed at you, you stubborn ass of a man. But I love you and you lead me to our daughter, so all is forgiven."

"Hey dad?"

"What is it, Lila?"

"Don't look now, but I think we have company.. Yeah.. That jackass is about 4 cars behind us."

"Crap." Sam muttered as she heard Lila unzipping a bag from the things of hers they'd packed to move her to New York before leaving. "What on Earth are you doing?"

"Getting my crossbow, mom."

"Lila.. That won't be a good idea, baby girl.. Put the crossbow up and pretend like you don't notice him." Jason instructed as he turned into the parking lot of a massive truck stop / gas station.

"And just what the hell do you think you're about to do?" Sam asked Jason as Jason said simply, "Going to talk to the jerk."

"And if talking doesn't work?"

"Hit the gas, baby." Jason muttered as he looked at her and then said "I'm not leaving any of you again. I'm back for good." before he slammed the door shut on his own SUV.. Just as he suspected, the other one pulled in a few pumps away.

"Watch your little brother." Sam said as she turned around and said quietly, "Mommy's about to go back Daddy up."

Lila groaned and then said "Danny, somehow, little dude.. I get the feeling this is somethin I'm gonna have to get used to."

He grinned and dribbled a little as he spread his arms, attempting to hug her. She smiled, hugging him against her as she watched the situation from inside the SUV carefully. She kept her cell phone in her hand, just in case things got a little hairy.

Jason found the man who'd gotten out of the other SUV in the store and tapped his shoulder. "Are you following me?"

"Don't believe so, nope."

"And I think that's a crock of bullshit too.. I also think you tried to wreck my daughter the other night.. And if I find out it was you? I will find you again and I will kill you." Jason said calmly as he held the man by his shirt's collar, smirking before he let him go.

The man said casually as Jason went to walk off, "Ain't me you oughta be worried about, Morgan."

Jason stopped in his tracks and turning around muttered quietly, "I knew I should have just fucking punched the guy." as Sam groaned from beside him. He gave her a raised brow and mouthed, "SUV, now."

"Hell no."

"Damn it, Sam."

"Damn it, Jason. We have kids to protect."

"No, I have you and our kids to protect." he muttered before walking over to the man, grabbing him covertly and quickly by the elbow, hauling him out in the alley as he said with a sneer, "You were saying?"

"The name Julian Jerome ring a bell to ya, sir?"

"It does, actually.. And when I see him again, I'm gonna tell him that next time he needs to find a hired gun who's gene pool didn't get pissed in.. Before I kill him, of course."

"He sent me to get the girl.. Ain't leavin until I do that."

"You're really gonna make me do this, aren't you?" Jason grumbled as he rolled his eyes and slammed the man against the brick wall, making sure his head hit.

He calmly walked inside, told the cashier that some drunk guy was passed out in the alley, he'd just ran into a brick wall and walked out.

"Really, Jason?"

"Hey.. I was polite about it, Sam."

Sam stifled a slight laugh as they got back into the SUV, only to find Lila and Danny had fallen asleep watching Finding Nemo on the portable DVD player/small screen that faced the back of the vehicle.

"Aww, look."

"She gets the sleeping with her mouth open thing from you."

"No, Jason, trust me. That snore? All you."

"Ha."

They started their drive again, Sam sending her mother picture texts of Lila as she smiled to herself. She finally had both of her children and her husband back where they belonged. All in all, she couldn't be happier right now. And that worried her deep down, because she wasn't overly optimistic.. Usually for every good thing that happened to her, at least ten bad ones were waiting to happen.

Alexis snickered as she opened her phone and saw another picture text from her oldest daughter Sam. "What's so funny, Mom?"

"Your niece."

"Whoa.. Lila was actually alive?"

"And apparently, so is Jason. They both tracked Lila to Georgia, they're bringing her home now. Do you want to see her?"

Molly took the phone and burst into laughter as she showed her older sister Kristina. "Poor Jason..."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the guys.. Lila.. I mean she's cute."

Alexis groaned and said "Don't say that to him. He'll have her up in a tower with the key being eaten. I won't blame her, either. Ooh.. She goes to the University of Georgia.. Or she did.. I wonder what she's majoring in?"

She texted Sam asking her this and Sam texted back Medicine.

In her kitchen, Alexis grumbled and then said casually, "At least she's going to become a doctor. Too bad she's not majoring in Law."

"Mom, really?"

"Mom, there is still hope.. Danny's still a baby." Molly reminded her mother as she grabbed a cookie and stuffed it in her mouth, earning her a glare from her mother.

"And maybe he'll be a lawyer." Kristina pointed out as she smiled and then said " Didn't Spinelli find out something about her being in a sorority? And a cheerleader?"

"Mhmm."

"Wonder what sororities are like?" Molly mused as Alexis groaned and then told them both, "You can ask her all your questions in person in a few days. I'm just glad they found out she was alive before it was too late. I'm glad Sam's got Jason and Lila back. Which is ironic, considering how I was totally against them being together to begin with."

"At least she's happy."

"And we're getting an older niece.. You know what that means, right, Kristina?"

"Mhmm.. I can finally raid someone's closet."

"I think not. I call dibs.. I wonder if she reads." Molly wondered aloud as she munched on another cookie, earning her another glare.

A FEW NOTES FROM THE WRITER

_Okay, so this song Better Dig Two, by the Band Perry inspired the story.. So I wrote the first chapter around the lyrics to it. If you haven't heard it, go listen now, it's this amazing and haunting, gritty song, if you really try, you can sort of picture Sam's struggle with grief having just lost Jason, as you read the story._

_That being said, I have made a lot of changes. The __**biggest**__ of them is that __**Lila was Jason's**__, not Sonny's. __**Jason and Sam have been together for a lot longer in my fic than they have on the show**__, I'm saying maybe since high school, __**before his wreck**__. All of that will come out in the story, because his wreck then and Lila's supposed death are a big part of the background for this story.. Most of that will be in flashbacks, stuff like that._

_Yes, Lila will be an original character and yes, she will be paired.. As of right now, looking into either Johnny or someone else, I'm sort of contemplating maybe bringing back a guy from the past._

_Lila is 19, she's been soarsed and yes, I realize she's a good deal younger than Johnny or Spinelli, the others._

_**COMPLETELY SKIPPING THE TMK LINE & THE DEATHS THAT HAVE OCCURED BECAUSE OF THAT. BEFORE ANYONE ASKS ME OR SOMETHING.**_

_**MIGHT OR MIGHT NOT BE FOLLOWING THE CURRENT PLOT WHILE ALSO HAVING MY OWN TWISTS.**_

_**Review if you like it so far, I'll work on uploading the rest as it comes.. This came on while I was watching GH today, on my Itunes, and the yen to write it down struck. I'm posting it, but I'm honestly not sure if you guys will like it or not, or if it's even any good.**_


	5. Chapter 5

_**One Month Later - A Few Days Later  
**_

_**Arrival to Port Charles, Family Bonding Time, Aww.  
**_

_**Alexis' LakeHouse too. Davis Girls, yay! 3**_

Sam laughed as Lila struggled with her rather heavy trunk, which held her trophies and photos, her posters and most importantly, the hunting rifle she'd used since she was probably about 9 or 10 every time hunting season opened. "Do you need some help?"

"I'm gonna get this damn thing up those stairs, mom. One way or.." she grunted adding, "Another." as she caught the trunk before it backtracked about halfway down the staircase as it'd done about two times when she lost her grip for a second there, stopped to take a rest.

"Are you starting to regret not just having it all shipped?" Jason asked as he came up beside his daughter, then took the side she was yanking on, dragging, or being drug by, rather, and allowed her to take the other side of the trunk. When they stood at the top of the stairs, she breathed and said "One box in.. Too damn many more to go."

Sam snickered and then said "Why don't you two take a rest.."

"Because, mom.. I wanna get everything in my room."

"Be warned, baby girl, it's pink."

"Hideously pink." her father taunted her as she groaned and muttered, "Hell with it. I'll worry about it later." and started back down the stairs, about to grab about two more boxes when the door burst open and 3 brunette females walked in, Alexis taking one of the boxes, giving her granddaughter a concerned look as she called up, "It's okay we came by first? The girls and I, we really couldn't wait.. And you should know, Monica will probably be by later, she's been excited too. And ready to chew out her son for giving her a heart attack."

Jason groaned, grumbled as Lila snickered and called out, "Uh oh.. That's two lectures, dad."

"Oh you quiet."

"Huh? I was just saying is all." Lila said as she snickered to herself and tried again to shove the bandanna that held her thick dark hair at bay out of her eyes back up onto her forehead.

"You do MMA? Isn't that dangerous?"

"For the other person, yes." Lila joked to a slightly younger female who introduced herself as Molly and gave a smile and giggle as she asked, "What made you start MMA?"

"Basically?"

"Mhmm."

"Decided that I wanted to be able to defend myself if anyone ever tried to mug me or grab me after work at night while I was livin on campus. If you wanna learn.. I can teach you a little of what I know so far."

Alexis shook her head, discouraging the thought quickly, or at the very least, trying to. Sam ran down the stairs and hugged her mother and her sisters as she whispered, "Well?"

"She's kind of exactly everything we used to wonder if she'd turn out to be." Alexis whispered as she said "A mix of both of you."

"Mostly her father though." Sam added with a smile as she turned and watched her daughter playing "airplane" with her baby brother, Danny.

"I can totally see it."

"Nah, I actually think she takes more after Sam." Kristina mused as she said "You guys didn't have trouble coming back, right?"

"Well, there was an incident, but.. Everything might just finally be okay now."

"What do you mean an incident?" Alexis asked in concern as Sam shrugged and said "Some guy tried to not only run Lila off the road when she was on her way to Jason's hotel room, but they also tried to follow us out of Georgia. Jason and I handled it, mom."

"Are you sure? Why did someone try to run Lila off the road? She's not in trouble, is she?"

"No, mom. This all goes back to some guy who hates Jason and Sonny." Sam said cautiously as she looked at her mother, waited on Alexis to give a lecture on exactly how her point about Jason' dangerous lifestyle was proven now.

"This box is getting heavy." Alexis said as Lila took it and said with a light laugh, "Probably because there's at least four thick A&P books in there, not to mention a book I've still got from when I was taking Psychology and a few of my law books."

"So you were taking law courses?"

"A few.. But I can't argue very well, without coming unglued completely, at least, short fuse.. So yeah, decided that it might be better for me if I stick to my original plan and become a doctor, try to help people. The books are cool to have around and just read sometimes though."

"She does read." Molly clapped as Lila gave a shrug and said "Yeah, mostly crime novels and my text books, hunting magazines or the sports page.. What do you like to read?"

"Romances." Molly said as she grinned brightly and then Lila responded with, "Just a little insider information here.. Real life is nothing like those books. Trust me.. I used to read 'em too, but I kinda realized that nothing ever happens like ya wish it would."

"It can though." Molly insisted as Lila smiled and then said "Maybe. I'm not gonna rule it out." before asking Molly and Kristina "Wanna come up and help me get my room ready to live in? I might have some clothes I don't wanna keep." as she gave a wink and waited on the two girls to follow her up the stairs.

"She seems like a practical girl." Alexis said as Jason and Sam nodded, adding, "She's sort of nervous right now. She went through a lot with that woman, apparently. We've sort of gotten the impression she never really got to be a kid when she was a child.. She spent most all of her time keeping the woman from having one breakdown or relapse after another.."

"Wow.. So the woman.. Blanche, right? What did she have to do with all this?"

"Whoever shot me on the docks was working with Julian Jerome, one of Sonny's old enemies.. And Julian apparently wanted our daughter for some reason. We're not sure why, but he hired her to take Lila and make people believe she died. The reason we found not one but two death certificates when we were both looking though, is because Blanche took it upon herself to take Lila to raise on her own, she'd recently lost her own child to her husband in a custody case, then they both died in an accident.. Basically, she was falling apart before, losing her child and former husband made it worse, so when she took the job Julian offered, she got attached to Lila and got some of her friends to help her hide Lila from everyone."

Alexis took a deep breath and then said quietly, "Wow."

"Yeah. She's been through a good bit. I'm just damn glad she's at least halfway okay right now. I can't say I'd have done well in her circumstances." Jason said as he smiled and then asked, "So.. Is there any chance that we're getting food tonight or?"

Sam gave her husband a dirty look as she said quietly, "Yeah.. Just as soon as we all get somewhere we all want to order it from.. I've sort of got to go to the grocery store.. It's sad really, there's not much in there right now, just yogurt, some other things, and Danny's formulas."

"We can go tomorrow. I'm pretty sure our daughter will not make it one night with bright and blinding pink walls." Jason chuckled as he hugged Sam a little tighter against him, he'd heard the sadness creep into her voice just now, knew he was the reason for it and he still felt guilty about it.

He'd been damn lucky she'd taken him back.

"Let me go and get something, is pizza alright?" Alexis asked as she kissed her grandson on the forehead, noting he felt a little warm. He'd been teething, so maybe that was it.

Hugging her daughter and then Jason, managing a smile at her son in law, whom she was finally starting to warm to, she said "Molly, Kristina, I'm going to grab everyone some pizza.. Maybe bring back some of the others. They've had a long trip, everyone should come to them so they can all rest for the night."

Molly and Kristina smiled as they helped Lila hanging up rock band posters, several charts and a corkboard full of pictures of Lila and her friends at college. Kristina turned to her niece and asked, "So.. What was college like? I mean I'm going to PCU, but.."

"It was pretty cool, I mean you had your usual assholes, but all in all, a lot of good times. I'm gonna go to PCU. Maybe we'll have some classes together." Lila suggested as Kristina smiled and said "I'd love that. Ooh la la.. Who is this guy?"

Lila peered at the cork board and muttered, "Some guy. I didn't really get to know him well.. " lying because she didn't want to talk about her former boyfriend Beau or how she lost him. She tried her best not to think about the way his death sort of showed her that life was about pain and loss.

Molly looked too, and giggled as she said "If you didn't get to know him really well, why is his arm around you?"

"Because.. I don't know..." Lila grumbled as she realized that she'd just fallen into proving Molly's point from downstairs about romance.

Even if you say you don't believe in love, sooner or later, everyone will fall. Lila just had the bad luck of falling and losing or being hurt so Lila made it a concrete point NOT to try. Ever.

The guy in the picture had been one of those who'd been lost. A drunk driver hit him head on one night when he was driving back to the town his own college was located in, after visiting her. She never really talked about it, but it haunted her.

A lot of things kind of haunted her.. But maybe now that she had her family, she'd finally be alright again. She had to hope so, right?

"Wow.. This is really vintage." Kristina said as she distracted Lila from her own mind for a little while. She'd noticed her niece seemed to hurt when the guy in the picture came up, she made a mental note to maybe talk to her about the situation later.

"Yeah.. That t shirt is from a vintage shop in Dauphin Island. I got a pair of jeans from there too.. Mostly got it because I've been an Ozzy Osbourne fan for as long as I've been listening to music."

"Ooh.. Hey, Kristina, we might have to convert to country music." Molly said as she tacked a Luke Bryan concert poster onto one of the walls next to an already posted Jason Aldean one.

"We just might, Molly. Really though, Lila? Ozzy? Isn't he the guy who bit the head off of a dove or something?"

"A bat, but yeah. I like his songs."

"Hmm."

They went through her clothes, were arranging a clothes swap when Sam peeked in and after taking a family photo of Lila with her aunts, said with a smile, "Your grandmother saved you from my attempts at cooking.. She got pizza."

"Thank you Lawd above." Lila joked as she said "Seriously? You can't cook either?"

"Nope."

"Good. I can't even really boil water." Lila admitted sheepishly as she smiled at her mother and the group moved into the living room, only to find that not only had Nickolas, her cousin or uncle or something shown up with his son Spencer and his wife Emily, but some guy named Spinelli had stopped by, as well as a bunch of stern faced people that Lila could only guess were her father's immediate family. Well now, this was going to be interesting, wasn't it?

A FEW NOTES FROM THE WRITER

_Okay, so this song Better Dig Two, by the Band Perry inspired the story.. So I wrote the first chapter around the lyrics to it. If you haven't heard it, go listen now, it's this amazing and haunting, gritty song, if you really try, you can sort of picture Sam's struggle with grief having just lost Jason, as you read the story._

_That being said, I have made a lot of changes. The __**biggest**__ of them is that __**Lila was Jason's**__, not Sonny's. __**Jason and Sam have been together for a lot longer in my fic than they have on the show**__, I'm saying maybe since high school, __**before his wreck**__. All of that will come out in the story, because his wreck then and Lila's supposed death are a big part of the background for this story.. Most of that will be in flashbacks, stuff like that._

_Yes, Lila will be an original character and yes, she will be paired.. As of right now, looking into either Johnny or someone else, I'm sort of contemplating maybe bringing back a guy from the past._

_Lila is 19, she's been soarsed and yes, I realize she's a good deal younger than Johnny or Spinelli, the others._

_**COMPLETELY SKIPPING THE TMK LINE & THE DEATHS THAT HAVE OCCURED BECAUSE OF THAT. BEFORE ANYONE ASKS ME OR SOMETHING.**_

_**MIGHT OR MIGHT NOT BE FOLLOWING THE CURRENT PLOT WHILE ALSO HAVING MY OWN TWISTS.**_

_**Review if you like it so far, I'll work on uploading the rest as it comes.. This came on while I was watching GH today, on my Itunes, and the yen to write it down struck. I'm posting it, but I'm honestly not sure if you guys will like it or not, or if it's even any good.**_


	6. Chapter 6

_**One Month Later - A Few Days Later (CONTINUED)  
**_

_**Arrival to Port Charles, Family Bonding Time, Aww.  
**_

The apartment was crowded, apparently she had a lot of family, her father had a lot of people who wanted answers, wanted to know why he'd done what he'd done and made them all think he was dead. Lila sat listening to her family talking, smiling to herself. She finally felt like she belonged somewhere. She'd tried to feel that way with Blanche, she really had, but something never really just fit right.

Not like here.

Nickolas snapped his fingers in front of her face as he asked, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah.. Just thinking." Lila said as he chuckled and said "I know how you feel.. Not a fan of large crowds myself."

"How'd you know?"

"You do the same thing I do when there's a large gathering. You sort of just sit back and observe." Nickolas said as he smiled and then asked, "Do you ride horses? I thought I saw a few pictures on your memory board of you on a horse.."

"Mhmm.. I had a mare but I had to sell her. Do you ride horses?"

"Actually, I ride horses a lot. And if you want, you can come to Spoon Island and ride them with me. Spencer's getting into it."

"I used to barrel race every now and then. I wasn't that great at it, but it was fun." Lila said as she smiled and then asked, "You're the one who lives in that castle, right?"

Nickolas chuckled and nodding said "Yeah.. You know.. People do say it's haunted."

"Really? Awesome."

"Whatever you're thinking, don't." Nickolas joked as Lila pouted and then said "But you don't wanna know if it really is?"

"Not particularly, no."

"Ghost hunting can be fun."

"It can, if you want to meet one.. I however, don't really care to."

"Ahh.. Chicken."

"Am not."

She stood and walked over, grabbing another slice of pizza, another soda as she sat back down on the couch between Molly and Kristina and whispered, "You guys are gonna have to like, follow me around and keep everyone's name straight. I am soooo bad with names."

"Good luck.. We are too." Kristina said as she smiled and then said "So.. Do you think you're going to like it here?"

"Yeah, I actually do.. It kind of already feels like home."

Jason and Sam watched their daughter getting to know their families, her family, and exchanged a quiet smile among them, Sam giving Jason's hand a gentle squeeze as once again, Monica gave him a long lecture about faking his death.. Even if he thought it were for good reason.

"Okay, mom.. Point taken." Jason said as he smiled and kissed Sam's forehead, walked over to pick up Danny, who was awake, wanting out of his playpen to be around everyone else.

Jason tensed a little when his brother AJ walked in.. He was still getting his head around AJ also have faked his own death and only just came back himself, really.. They'd never actually gotten along well, and he grumbled as Monica said "He's your brother."

"And he's always got this habit of starting something, Mom." Jason said quietly as he stood there debating on making AJ leave. AJ walked over and said quietly, "Jason."

"AJ."

"I'm happy for you.. I know how hard it was on you, losing Lila."

"Thank you."

"I know we won't ever be close."

"Nope, probably not."

"But we are family.. And I am trying to get my life back on track." AJ said as Liz nodded and smiled at Sam, mouthing, "Jason is going to have his hands full with the boys and Lila."

"Do not even mention dating and Lila to Jason.." Sam whispered as she added, "He caught this one guy trying to talk to her on our way back, he walked over and gave the guy an intimidating smirk, the kid ran like his hair was on fire and his butt was catching on fire."

"Yikes." Liz said as she asked, "So.. How was she when you both told her?"

"Well, other than the temper tantrum Jason said she had before I got there, so far, she's seemed okay with everything." Sam said as she added, "I get the feeling that the woman who had her really didn't let her have a childhood."

"Yeah.. She looks like it."

Tracy walked over and looked at the girl sitting between Kristina and Molly, warily for a moment.

Lila studied her with a slight smirk of amusement as she ate her pizza calmly, waiting on her to say something.

"Maybe all you got from Jason is his eyes." Tracy said quietly as she added, "Nothing personal."

Lila shrugged and said "You do realize that he is my father, right? So if you're sitting here, saying basically that it'd be some tragedy if God forbid, I turn out like him.. Then yeah.. I'm gonna take it personal." as she smirked and shoved another bite of pizza neatly in her mouth.

Tracy smiled and then said calmly, "At least you're up front and you speak your mind."

"Mhmm."

When she walked off, Lila looked at Kristina and Molly then muttered, "Seriously? Did that shit really just happen?"

"It did.. And that's Tracy for you.. But she's sweet once you get past the two sizes too small heart... She was testing you just now." Kristina muttered as Lila giggled and ending the giggle in a rather loud snort that had the three brunette girls laughing, she asked, "Yeah? How'd I do?"

"She's smiling at you right now, so I think you're gonna be okay with her." Molly said as she peeked over her shoulder and then asked, "Do you snort a lot when you laugh?"

"Noooo.."

"Liar."

"Am not."

"Are so. You've done it three times already." Kristina said as she laughed and then muttered, "Finally, we have someone to talk to. Morgan's wife.. She's sort of a bitch."

"Hey.. You're not supposed to say that about her, K." Molly said as Lila asked, "Ooh... Define kind of."

"Let's put it this way.. When she first met Morgan, she almost got him killed.. You'll probably meet him later. He's Michael's brother. Oh.. And Kiki has also kissed Michael."

Molly gaped at this one and asked, "Hey.. Why am I just now hearing this.. Poor Morgan."

"It happened a while ago, Molly.. I totally told you."

"You did not.. Okay, you might have, I've had a lot on my mind."

Michael walked over and flopped down on the floor across from his sister, his cousins and smiled at Lila as he said "I'm Michael, I'm your cousin."

"I'm Lila.. Umm.. Is Tracy always like that?"

"Pretty much, yeah.. She didn't say anything mean, did she? Monica told her to keep her mouth shut on the way over.."

"It's cool.. I kinda got her back though."

Michael smirked as he said "I wish I could have heard it. So.. You're going to be a doctor?"

"Yeah."

"That's cool. I thought about it once.." Michael said as he smiled and then said "Oh crap.. My dad's here.. And he's in the same room with Uncle Jason.. They really don't get along well.. This should be more fun than a barrel of monkeys."

"Ahh.. Now I see which side the sarcasm I inherited comes from." Lila said as she watched her father talking to a man who sort of looked like him, just older.

"Taking it that's uncle AJ?"

"Yeah. And he's walking over here." Michael said as he stood and made his way over to talk to Jason.

AJ studied his niece as he smiled and said "You look just like I thought you would when they told me you were alive, kiddo."

"I, umm, thanks.. Been getting that a lot tonight." Lila muttered, not used to this whole experience.

"So.. you're doing MMA?"

Lila smiled as she said "Yeah."

"I always thought that looked dangerous. You should probably be careful." AJ warned, smiling as he asked, "Given any thought to working at ELQ?"

"Not really, no sir.. I'm going to school to major in medicine. I wanna be a doctor or a physical therapist." Lila said as she smiled. After he talked to her a little bit longer, she asked Michael, who'd sat back down, "Taking it that my dad's family doesn't really like what he's doing with his life."

"Nope."

"Ouch. Poor dad.. I don't get it. I mean he's still their family."

"Trust me.. It's really, really complicated." Michael chuckled as he said "They're gonna warm up to you, I know it seems like they're all stiff and rigid and all that, but they're really close. It takes a while to get in, get to know everyone."

Lila nodded and stretching, she walked over and took her brother from her mom, walking around with him for a little while, trying to figure out who everyone was..

Finally, someone realized how late it was getting, and eventually almost everyone cleared out, leaving Molly and Kristina, Michael in her room, with Danny's playpen pushed into the room also. Michael looked at all of her pictures and trophies, the gun rack and then laughing asked, "Lemme guess.. You hunted."

"Crossbow and guns."

"At least nobody will be worrying about you getting hurt or something."

Kristina laughed as she said "Nope.. between the gun, the crossbow, Jason and her MMA training? I'm pretty darn sure that anybody who tries to mess with her is going to wind up regretting it."

"hey.. I'm a sweet girl.. Until you piss me off." Lila joked as Molly laughed and then said "We're going to have a lot of fun, I just have this feeling."

"Me too. Have any of you guys ever played Laser tag?"

"Nope."

"Tried it once, Ethan, my boyfriend killed me before I even really made it onto the 'field' we were playing it in." Kristina admitted as she laughed and showed Lila a picture of Ethan.

"Ooh.."

"Hey."

"Just sayin. Don't worry though because between school and helping mom with Danny, helping at the agency if I'm needed.. Really do not think I'm even going to remotely have time to date, let alone meet a guy.. Besides.. Pretty sure dad will break bones.."

"Yeah, he probably will." Molly joked as the girls hugged her and left with their mom. Michael left too and Lila flopped onto her bed after getting her little brother out of his playpen, digging around, finding one of her old Dr. Seuss books..

And when Sam and Jason walked past the pink room and peeked in, they found Lila asleep with Danny, the book open on her chest.

"Go get the camera." Sam said as she smiled and snapped away, picture after picture.. Now that she finally had her whole family back, she was definitely going to start taking a lot of pictures, probably of everything they did.

"It's good to be home." Jason said as his arms found their way around her waist and he stood b ehind her in the hallway, watching his two kids sleeping, smiling to himself.

A FEW NOTES FROM THE WRITER

_Okay, so this song Better Dig Two, by the Band Perry inspired the story.. So I wrote the first chapter around the lyrics to it. If you haven't heard it, go listen now, it's this amazing and haunting, gritty song, if you really try, you can sort of picture Sam's struggle with grief having just lost Jason, as you read the story._

_That being said, I have made a lot of changes. The __**biggest**__ of them is that __**Lila was Jason's**__, not Sonny's. __**Jason and Sam have been together for a lot longer in my fic than they have on the show**__, I'm saying maybe since high school, __**before his wreck**__. All of that will come out in the story, because his wreck then and Lila's supposed death are a big part of the background for this story.. Most of that will be in flashbacks, stuff like that._

_Yes, Lila will be an original character and yes, she will be paired.. As of right now, looking into either Johnny or someone else, I'm sort of contemplating maybe bringing back a guy from the past._

_Lila is 19, she's been soarsed and yes, I realize she's a good deal younger than Johnny or Spinelli, the others._

_**COMPLETELY SKIPPING THE TMK LINE & THE DEATHS THAT HAVE OCCURED BECAUSE OF THAT. BEFORE ANYONE ASKS ME OR SOMETHING.**_

_**MIGHT OR MIGHT NOT BE FOLLOWING THE CURRENT PLOT WHILE ALSO HAVING MY OWN TWISTS.**_

_**Review if you like it so far, I'll work on uploading the rest as it comes.. This came on while I was watching GH today, on my Itunes, and the yen to write it down struck. I'm posting it, but I'm honestly not sure if you guys will like it or not, or if it's even any good.**_


	7. Chapter 7

_**SETTLING INTO LIFE  
**_

She rubbed her eyes as the alarm went off on her nightstand. "Damn. I overslept again." Lila muttered as she stood, stretching, walking, or sort of stumbling rather, down the hallway and into the kitchen.

"Caffeine. Need caffeine." Lila muttered as Sam laughed, held out a cup of mostly cream coffee at her and said "Figured you'd be up in a few .. Are you going to the campus to look around with Kristina today?"

"Yeah. Hey, Mom, do they have a gym around here? I'm gonna take some of the money I had left in my old bank account and get a membership while I'm out." Lila asked as Sam said "I think the fitness center in the Metro Court is a membership one, and I think they're doing MMA training now."

"Sweet."

Sam frowned to herself as she happened to notice that again, Danny felt warmer than usual. He kept tugging on his ear also.

"Ooh, Mom.. You need to take him to the doctor. He's pulling his ear.. My friend Sienna, her kid did that whenever he got an ear infection." Lila said as Sam nodded then asked, "Want me to wait until you're here, then we can both go?"

"Yeah. Dad's already at work, isn't he?"

"Yes, why."

"Crap. I was gonna ask him if Sonny would mind me using his shooting range this weekend, shoot my gun.. Just so it doesn't jam or something from lack of use."

"And you want to shoot something, but hunting's not really advised here.. Right?" Sam asked, stifling a laugh. Lila had been in their lives for about 2 weeks now and Sam was already learning her daughter's inner workings like the back of her hand.

"Something like that, yeah."

Sam laughed and then said "I thought so. So.. What are you going to do this afternoon.. After the doctors appointment I'm about to make for Danny, I meant."

"Dunno.. Kristina said something about maybe just walking around town, she said she'd show me where everything was since for the past two weekends, it's rained nonstop and we haven't been able to do it." Lila said as she raked her hand through her hair, bit her lower lip and sipped her coffee.

"Yeah.. But the docks are dangerous, stay away from them. Trust me."

"Says the woman who goes undercover." Lila said with a teasing laugh as Sam said "Oh haha."

After they'd both had their coffee, at least partially waking up, Lila waited on Kristina and then they left for PCU to take the orientation tour.

"Ooh, they have soccer."

"Ooh, soccer team." Kristina joked as Lila shrugged and said "Meh, they're not that cute, actually. And I think I can kick that one guy's ass.. Yep.. Pretty damn sure of it. I get him by his knees, it's over with, look at those calves."

"Ouch."

"Facts are facts, aunt K."

"Question.. What's your shirt mean?"

"What do you mean?"

"It says Sorry about Your Damn Luck."

"Oh.. That.. He's a guy from TNA, James Storm. It's actually autographed. This is kinda my lucky shirt." Lila said as she signed her name to the soccer try out sheet and then said "Hey Kristina?"

"Yeah."

"I thought you said Ethan was gone on some quest or something?"

"Umm, yeah, he's always leaving. Why?"

"Because he's standing over there, all nicely dressed.. With flowers." Lila snickered as Kristina said quietly, "You better not be lying to.." and looked up, her face breaking in a bright grin as she practically warp speed ran to his arms.

"Aww. And I got to see it." Lila muttered as she smiled and snapped a photo on her cell phone, then texted Kristina telling her she'd just look around on her own for a little while or something.

Seeing her grandmother, Monica manning the booth for the Nursing program, she walked over and said with a smile, "Where do I sign up?"

Monica smiled and hugged her granddaughter then laughed, shaking her head at Lila's unusual shirt of the day. It was a quirk her grandchild had, she'd noticed.. She liked wearing jerseys, or t shirts that advertised country stars, or had song lyrics on them, or cars and bikes, or MMA or professional wrestlers. "So.. What's this shirt about?"

"A wrestler I met.. Some girls in my old sorority kinda snuck me out to see a TNA show when I was back in Georgia.. One of 'em somehow knew James Storm and got me back to meet the guy."

"You'd better not ever tell your dad that one." Monica chuckled as she took the sign up sheet back from Lila and said "It's going to be nice having you working at the hospital. You did sign up for the intern spot too, right?"

"Yes ma'am. Do you want a drink or something? It's like, hellishly hot out here."

"Okay, that's bad.. You're used to the heat, being from Georgia, and you're saying it. Now I know it's not just me."

Lila laughed and talked a little longer, before moving on to the ROTC booth. She wasn't intending to stop but the guy sitting at it sort of swayed her a little.

"Ahhh.. James Storm fan, huh?" Logan Baldwin asked as he smirked and said "Take one."

She took a pamphlet then asked, "You watch? So far, I'm like the only one here who does."

"Not really, me and my buddy on the force, Diego.. We kinda watch pretty much any sport on tv."

"Wait.. Diego.. I've heard that name.."

"We're the ones who flushed out the real TMK. By accident, but yeah. Kinda why we decided to become cops."

"It is not, Baldwin.. Why are you lying to her?" Diego spoke up from behind Logan as he smirked, slid into his seat and said "We got roped into manning this station.. And doing the ROTC drills for the college. Are you joining?"

"Not sure.. I mean I'm already wanting to intern at the hospital with my grandma, then there's babysitting I'm sure and soccer.."

"Wow. Do you sleep?"

"What's this sleep you speak of?" Lila joked as she said "Seriously though, I might be back and sign.. I'm not really sure yet.."

Before she even got halfway away from the booth, another cousin of hers, Dillon ran over and dragged her towards his studio's booth.

"You have the sense of humor the campus radio station needs.."

"No, Dill.."

"Yes, Lil."

"Dang it. Do they at least play country?"

Dillon shrugged and said with a smirk, "Well.. You are family.. And Georgie does love it... We just might be able to work it out."

"Hmm.. Can we work around my internship, helping my parents AND soccer, my MMA stuff AND possibly ROTC?"

"Why in the name of God are you going to sign up for ROTC?"

"Because it makes sense.. I was in JROTC?"

"Oh yeah.. I forgot.. You're not most girls, you're made of gunpowder and lead."

"Oh my god.. You totally listen to country.. You closet country groupie."

"it's my wife's fault." Dillion smiled as he spoke about Georgie and then said with a nudge and a grin, "Come on... If you won't do it, at least come by and sing that one song you're always singing when you're in Kelly's."

"I hope it rains?"

"Yeah, that one."

"Wow.. you must really need.. I can't sing a note."

"You can."

Kristina and Ethan walked around as Ethan said "Had to come back.. That last little argument we had.. It sort of made me think, love.."

"Yeah?"

"I can give this stay in one place thing a try.. You're worth it." Ethan said as his lips found her forehead. Kristina laughed as she spotted Lila being begged by Dillon to do a dj spot on the campus radio station.

"That's Lila, huh?"

"Yeah." Kristina smiled as Ethan happened to see Lila being looked at by Diego Alcazar and Logan Baldwin, two guys he'd never thought would go on the straight and narrow, but surprisingly, they had.

Meanwhile, Lila wandered more, bumping into her uncle AJ, who obviously got stuck with the short straw and as such was currently trying to get people interested in competing for an internship at ELQ.

"You're burning, kiddo."

"Yeah, no crap, there, Uncle AJ." Lila joked as she said "So are you."

"So.. that one group of girls didn't get to you yet, did they?"

"You mean the barbie wannabes over by the gate?"

"Yeah, those.. If they try and get you to pledge, don't.. Dante, my son's half brother said he's always going to their sorority house and giving tickets or taking someone to jail or home."

"Hmm."  
"Lila Alexandra Morgan, you better listen to me." AJ said firmly as he added, "Trust me.. I got mixed up in a bad frat back in the day.. It's sort of how thing started to go downhill."

"Trust me, Uncle AJ.. I really don't see little ol' me fittin in with those girls. I'll give K the heads up too."

"Oh trust me, she knows.. According to Michael, half those girls made her life hell at Madison Prep."

"Wow.. you've really gotten closer to Michael.. You and dad really should try to work things out."

"We're both stubborn, Lil."

"Yes I know this. But.." AJ started then stopped as he smiled and said "Just have a good day.. Are you sure you don't wanna give ELQ a go?"

"Math, sir, is NOT my strong suit." Lila gave a light laugh as she walked on farther, stopping to get a bottled water as she texted her mother to tell her how the day was going so far, then her dad to tell him and ask how his was going.

Jason laughed as he read his daughter's text then grumbled, "Gonna have to buy a better gun now. Damn college punks." as he worked on the chassis of a Corvette Stingray.

Sam showed Molly the text and then said with a smile, "At least Kristina won't have to face those girls from Madison Prep alone this year."

"I know. I'm glad. So she's having fun?"

"Yeah.. She said she's seen more of our extended family today, than she has since she got here. I'm just glad she's alive and here with us, Jason's home and safe and Danny's with me again too."

"Me too, Sam." Molly said as she texted Lila to ask "So.. met any guys today?"

Lila read her aunt Molly's text and laughed a little then said "Meh, not sure.. But I might be djing at the radio station.."

"What?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Now maybe I can have some music that doesn't bore me to listen too.. You just have to remember me when you become a famous dj."

Lila laughed and texted back, "But aunt Molly, you're already a semi famous writer."

She shoved her phone into her pocket and walked around, finding Kristina and Ethan talking to some of the other kids Kristina knew.. Then a few minutes later, she and Kristina and Ethan left, went back to the apartment.

She smiled to herself as she sat in the back of the car, went through her photos on her phone. Finally, it felt like she was home.. Like she belonged somewhere. She had to wonder if her life was maybe going to actually be her life now.

Just a fun but normal dull day. She could really get used to this.

But, as the saying goes, anything and everything can happen in Port Charles.. Would it stay this calm?

A FEW NOTES FROM THE WRITER

_Okay, so this song Better Dig Two, by the Band Perry inspired the story.. So I wrote the first chapter around the lyrics to it. If you haven't heard it, go listen now, it's this amazing and haunting, gritty song, if you really try, you can sort of picture Sam's struggle with grief having just lost Jason, as you read the story._

_That being said, I have made a lot of changes. The __**biggest**__ of them is that __**Lila was Jason's**__, not Sonny's. __**Jason and Sam have been together for a lot longer in my fic than they have on the show**__, I'm saying maybe since high school, __**before his wreck**__. All of that will come out in the story, because his wreck then and Lila's supposed death are a big part of the background for this story.. Most of that will be in flashbacks, stuff like that._

_Yes, Lila will be an original character and yes, she will be paired.. As of right now, looking into either Johnny or someone else, I'm sort of contemplating maybe bringing back a guy from the past._

_Lila is 19, she's been soarsed and yes, I realize she's a good deal younger than Johnny or Spinelli, the others._

_**COMPLETELY SKIPPING THE TMK LINE & THE DEATHS THAT HAVE OCCURED BECAUSE OF THAT. BEFORE ANYONE ASKS ME OR SOMETHING.**_

_**MIGHT OR MIGHT NOT BE FOLLOWING THE CURRENT PLOT WHILE ALSO HAVING MY OWN TWISTS.**_

_**Review if you like it so far, I'll work on uploading the rest as it comes.. This came on while I was watching GH today, on my Itunes, and the yen to write it down struck. I'm posting it, but I'm honestly not sure if you guys will like it or not, or if it's even any good.**_


	8. Chapter 8

_**SETTLING INTO LIFE CONTINUED  
**_

"Don't ask me why, Mom.. Just don't like that fu, err, freaking guy."

"Which one, though, Lila?"

"The one sitting two chairs down, in the waiting room. And if he looks over here again, he's not gonna like the taste of his own damn teeth." Lila murmured as she rolled her eyes dismissively at the man currently sitting a mere two chairs away, watching them intently.

"Hey, you." Lila called out, Sam's groaning as her hand went over her daughter's mouth, muffling her. "You got entirely too much of mom's temper."

"And dad's."

"Thankfully, no, not dads. If it were dads, you'd have punched him already." Sam stated as she apologized frostily to the man who just kept right on staring at them, the literal dead ringer for Dr. Silas Clay, a doctor who worked at the hospital in the pediatrics ward. A man she knew because he was her son's pediatrician.

Thankfully, the sound of Lila's cell phone ringing had her stepping out to take the call. As she walked past, Sam noticed how the man stared at Lila, and it gave her the chills. Enough so that she snapped his picture, and texted it to her husband, asking, "Do we know this guy?"

Jason studied the phone a moment and tried to figure out where he'd seen the guy in the picture Sam sent before now. He knew it was somewhere, but where exactly, he couldn't be sure.

But he didn't like the guy and he sensed trouble, so he texted back to his wife, "No, why?"

"Because, he's staring at Lila while we're here at the doctor's office. And I do not like it, Jase. I'm tempted to go and say something to him, but I'm just hoping that maybe he'll leave or something." Sam typed back as she looked up, found the seat he'd been sitting in empty.

Outside, Lila paced, listening to Molly's current situation, trying to pick between two guys, and the man stopped dead in front of her, staring.

"What the hell do you want, sir?" she asked, glaring. Did he not realize how rude it was to practically stand there gawking as she took a private call? Free country, free space or not.. She didn't like people staring at her, and this guy had been creeping her out since he'd stepped into the waiting room and taken the seat next to her mother, herself and her brother.

"You look a lot like your mother. Got my eyes though." Stephen said as he grinned a little and then said "Stephen Clay."

"As in the serial killer?" Lila asked, biting her lower lip, torn between amusement and fear, not sure if she should kick the guy in the balls and run like hell, or scream and let the cops deal with this ass.

"No.. As in your father."

"No, sir, you're insane.. My father, if you just have to know this, is Jason Morgan."

"And your mother.. That's her in the lobby, yes? Her name's Libby.. My wife."

"No, my mother's name is Sam. And she most certainly is not your wife. Look, is this some kind of pranking reality show?"

"Nah."

"Well then if you wanna keep your teeth, mister.. I'd suggest you get the fuck away from me. I don't like it when I feel like I'm being threatened and right now sir? Feeling kinda threatened."

"Oh really?"

"Really."

"I'll go then.. But I'm telling the complete truth. She is Libby, and she will come back to me.. We always find our way back.. And Lila?"

"What?"

"I am your father."

"Go to hell and burn, fucker." Lila muttered as she pulled up the collar on her leather jacket, walked back inside and sat down next to her mother, telling her what the guy said while she'd been outside on the phone. Sam groaned as she texted Jason back. Like they really needed this potential problem. Not on top of everything else. They were all still reeling from the scare Danny had healthwise, earlier in the week.. Thank God Dr. Clay realized that the doctor misdiagnosed Danny.

If not for that, right now, things in their lives would be grim indeed.

"I can't let you two outta my sights, can I?" Jason asked moments later as he walked into the office and sat down, his arm going around both Sam's chair and Lila's.

"I handled it, dad."

"I know.. That's what got me worried." Jason snickered as Lila scowled a moment and nodded in the guy's direction as she mouthed, "Or I thought I did.. He's baaack."

Jason growled and then leaning in said "You three sit tight. I'm here now, everything's gonna be okay. If he says or tries anything, I'll handle him."

A few moments later, when Silas appeared to call Danny back for a followup checkup, the other guy practically fled the room as if he didn't want the man who could be a mirror image of him, seeing him.

"Wait until McBain gets a load of that crazy." Jason muttered to himself as he and Sam walked into the doctor's small office space, Lila behind them. It didn't take long and Dr. Clay had them back out the door again, giving Sam a prescription for some medicine for the fevers and earaches that Danny had been plagued with, lately, explaining that some kids had this and later on in life grew out of it.

"I did have swimmers ear a lot when I was little, Mom." Lila said as she held her little brother while her mom dug around in her purse for the keys to the SUV. Jason scanned the parking garage, his eyes searching. He too had gotten a weird vibe off the guy earlier, and naturally, he wasn't intending on leaving either of them or Danny alone until he knew all was well.

"If either of you see that guy lurking again, tell me." Jason said as he kissed Sam and then said "I'm gonna follow you guys home. I'll close the shop early tonight. Maybe we can go get something to eat."

"That sounds like the best idea I've heard all day." Sam said as Lila nodded and said "Me too.. Tried to make ramen earlier, almost burnt the kitchen to the ground, dad."

"You'll get the hang of cooking." Jason laughed as he ruffled his daughter's hair and then said casually, "So.. When do classes start?"

"In about a week or two." Lila answered as she got into her mom's SUV and finished strapping Danny in.

"So, what'd Molly have to say earlier?" Sam asked as Lila smiled and said "Someone's having boy troubles.. I'm not allowed to go into details, but yeah.. That Trevor guy? He might just be a thing of the past.. I told her to go for the guy she didn't feel pressure to be around.. If I'm right, she'll be texting Rafe before it's even night time. God I hope so. There's something about that Trevor kid I just don't like."

"Me too. Especially since he cheated on Molly with Felix's sister." Sam said as Lila nodded and then said "Did Kristina tell you yet?"

"No, what?"

"Apparently, Ethan is going to try the college boy lifestyle, just to be with her."

"Awww. I told her Ethan would come around sooner or later, stop trying so hard. And you?"

"Ha, mom.. There aren't enough hours in the day.. besides, I'm just not really going to look for anyone. I figure if they want me, sooner or later, they'll find me or something.." Lila muttered as she bit her nail and read a text from her cousin in law Georgie Jones Quartermaine, laughing.

The event from earlier, the guy saying what he had in the parking lot though, still had her concerned.. Was he going to start messing with her family? She hoped not.

A FEW NOTES FROM THE WRITER

**_First of all, I am loving the fact that you guys love this so far. I started writing it after hearing the below mentioned song, and it's become one of my favorites to write. I want to personally thank everyone who's been reviewing and adding it to their favorites list._**

**_That being said.. You might notice that in this chapter, I have Stephen Clay as JUST coming into town, while Dr. Silas Clay is an established character. Yes, there is a reason for this, and no, it's not all good. I just thought I'd make things interesting, because personally, I always wanted to see Jason just totally get his hands on Stephen, but secondly, I also happen to find Stephen Clay sexy as hell and scary. So yeah, for what it's worth, sorry. This was a past storyline, but I'm taking it and revamping it, making it my way, sort of._**

**_No, danny will NOT be getting leukemia in my story. I hated that they did that on the show, just to have a reason to add in yet another unneeded (and truth be told, at least in my opinion,) unwanted character._**

**Pairings for Lila, the choices rather, are Johnny, Logan or Diego and maybe Spinelli .. Everyone else is either related, or not a favorite of mine, not someone I can tap into easily.**


	9. Chapter 9

_**SETTLING INTO LIFE CONTINUED  
**_

The sounds of Downstait blasted from the speakers in the fitness center as Lila focused on her MMA training. She'd just stopped to take a water break when the man from the doctor's office earlier in the week stepped in and sat down, clapping.

"By all means, continue."

"What the fuck do you want, even? Didn't my father tell you to piss off?" Lila asked as Molly tugged her niece's tanktop and Kristina hissed, "Okay, scrappy, this is not a fight you wanna pick."

"The guy's creepy.. Remember how Rafe caught him staring at Sam earlier? He's up to something."

"And your dad will handle it." Kristina finished as Lila shook her head, popped a bubble with her gum as she calmly eyed the man, her ice blue eyes piercing, not looking the least intimidated.

She was every bit her father's daughter and this man was NOT going to scare her. Her aunts, however, began dragging her towards the exit in the room, only to have him block it, as if he'd come out of nowhere.

Lila blinked and then said stiffly, "Move."

"You keep saying that thug for hire is your dad.. You need to accept that I'm your father. It's obvious you get my cool head, so think rationally about this." Stephen said as he looked at the girl that he believed delusionally, was his daughter.

Lila, of course, had no idea just how dangerous Stephen Clay was. But her aunts did and they were afraid for her, for Sam and man was obviously having some sort of breakdown and he honestly believed Sam, Danny and Lila were his family.. Not Jason's family, his.

"Let's go, Lila."

"Yeah, come on, please? I gotta go meet Rafe and Kristina's got to go pick up Ethan from work."

"You heard 'em, sir.. Move. Don't make me spear you."

"Spear me? Cute."

"You won't think so when you're laying flat on your back, lookin up." Lila said with a menacing smirk as she shoved past him, her aunts on her heels as they fled from the fitness area of the Metro Court.

Lila slid to a stop at Carly's desk and said "There's a guy.. He's hanging around the fitness center, and I think he's gonna start something. Might wanna look into it."

Carly nodded and then asked, " Was it that Stephen guy again?"

"It was, yeah."

"You do know he's Silas' brother, right?"

"Yeah.. And even Dr. Clay warned Mom about him. Dad told me to tell the nearest adult if I saw the guy. I'd handle it myself, but I think Molly and K might just faint on me if I did." Lila joked as the two sisters shook their heads and both insisted, "It's not a good idea, Lila.. Antagonizing him like that."

"They're right." Carly stated as she looked at Sam and Jason's oldest child with slight amusement. She was still getting used to Jason being alive, Lila being alive, the past few years for her new friend Sam having been a bad dream.

If anyone deserved it, it was Sam.

"Hey.. Tell your mom I found some of Michael's old things, if she wants them for Danny. I'll come by later and we'll go through them."

"Gotcha." Lila said as she gave the woman a thumbs up and the three of them made a beeline for the door. Once they were outside, Kristina popped her niece firmly in the back of the head as Molly did the same, seconds later..

"What the hell were you thinking?"

"No, Kristina, the question is, was she thinking, because clearly, she wasn't." Molly said as Lila rubbed her head, mocking pain while walking backwards down the sidewalk. She smacked straight into Logan Hayes who snickered as he looked at the baggy basketball shorts, the Tapout tanktop and the sideways baseball cap that his friend wore.

"Lemme guess. MMA."

"Mhmm."

" Still don't see how a girl doing that's not dangerous." he huffed as he said "You all look like you just had the livin hell scared outta ya."

"Because they did. I however, was prepared to spear the creepy bastard." Lila said with a smirk as she said "Stephen Clay. Some guy that's been sort of showing up around my mother and me, my brother.. Get this, crazy guy thinks we're his family."

"Need me to talk to him?"

"Nah, Hayes.. This is 2013. Women handle their own sh, err, crap." Lila said as she smiled at him, giving him a polite nod. They walked away after a few more moments and Kristina muttered, "Somebody was getting hit on."

"Was not."

"Sure you weren't, Lila." Molly mused as she said, "He is cute. And he's not much older."

"Don't even think it, you two." Lila said as they walked into Kelly's to pick up the food Sam ordered and asked Lila to pick up. Her mother had a case, her father was working on a Corvette that was proving to be literal hell on wheels and she was going to babysit her little brother when she got home, while studying for an upcoming A&P test that her friend of sorts, this guy who hung around her father a good bit, Spinelli, was going to come over and quiz her on.

With a life that busy, she figured she really didn't have time for guys. But she was happy for her aunts in their relationships. She figured she'd live vicariously through them if anything.

Besides, when you fall too many times, and you get your heart broken all of them, it kind of discourages you from trying.

A FEW NOTES FROM THE WRITER

**_First of all, I am loving the fact that you guys love this so far. I started writing it after hearing the below mentioned song, and it's become one of my favorites to write. I want to personally thank everyone who's been reviewing and adding it to their favorites list._**

_**Pairings for Lila, the choices rather, are Johnny, Logan or Diego and maybe Spinelli .. Everyone else is either related, or not a favorite of mine, not someone I can tap into easily.**_


	10. Chapter 10

_**SETTLING INTO LIFE CONTINUED  
**_

She gave the brunette a raised brow. She'd only talked to Kiki Jerome-Corinthos for the space of 10 minutes, she already wanted to take her outside and show her what an ass beating felt like. It was just the feeling she got off the girl, really. And from what Kristina said, she turned or was turning their cousin Morgan into an asshole, because she was 'confused' and she'd kissed Michael.

"See what I mean?" Kristina whispered as Lila nodded and said quietly, "Oh yeah.. I even tried countin from five back. Nope, still a bitcherooni." as Maxie whispered quietly, "And it gets no better. If you think she's a piece of work? Try meeting her mother."

"Yeah, apple never really falls far from that tree, does it?" Lila asked as Lulu shifted her sleeping daughter in her arms and said simply, "Not really.. But you took more after Jason from what I've seen so far."

"She takes after Sam too, you just haven't seen it yet." Kristina stated as Molly leaned in and asked quietly, "Is there some reason we're all sitting here staring at Kiki Jerome?"

"Because.. She's going to mouth off in just a second, I can feel it."

"Because I cannot stand the girl and I'm waiting on the day Morgan sees how toxic she is and leaves her ass high and dry." Lulu said as Maxie nodded, shifted her child around in her lap, cooing at her.

Kiki walked over and leaning in said "If you're staring at Morgan, Lila, just know I get jealous easily."

Lila mocked her and leaning in said, "If you think I'm into inbreeding, clearly you need your fucking ass kicked. Want me to help ya with that?" as Kristina and Lulu quickly grabbed her by the back strap of her tanktop.

"Just letting you know. I don't like the way you're all always trying to turn Morgan against me."

"We're not, really." Lila said in a mock sweet tone as she muttered under her breath, "Bitcherooni." when Kiki walked away. The girls sitting at the booth burst into laughter and then Maxie said "My sister would have loved you."

"She would have."

"What happened to her? I mean if you don't mind my askin." Lila asked as Lulu and Maxie explained that Logan and Diego had been too late to catch the TMK before he'd killed Georgie, thinking Georgie was her.

"Wow.. This town always that crazy?"

"Sadly, yes. It gets old after a while, really." Lulu said as Lila leaned back and sipped her sweet tea, then said finally, " Sorry." as she looked at her hands a moment, not sure what else to say.

"It's okay. I mean it still hurts, but not as badly as it did then." Maxie said as she added quietly, "Thanks."

The girls finished eating quietly, and Lila had just thrown her food wrappers and utensils in the garbage when she heard him behind her. "How'd school go today?"

"Fuck off, Clay."

"You really should start calling me Dad.. Soon, one way or another, the truth will come out."

"Or my daddy will get sick of your shit and shoot you in the fucking head." Lila said sweetly as she turned around and glowered up at the man, her hand on her hip. Another voice from behind her had him glaring at the person speaking.

Diego cleared his throat and then said calmly, "If I were you, sir, I'd make like a tree and leave. Trust me, her father's not somebody you want to get on the bad side of.. And then there's the fact that she happens to be good buddies with me, and my partner Logan here, and we're cops, so.."

"Just not seeing as how it'd be good for you to keep on stalking the Morgan family, sir." Logan spoke up as he smirked at Lila, gave her a cocky grin. Lila bit her lower lip and muttered, "Dang it y'all, I had that."

"No, ya didn't have it. He had something in his pocket. That's why Diego and I walked over." Logan said simply as he walked out giving the others a casual nod.

Lulu giggled a little and Maxie leaned in and whispered, "If that wasn't an obvious territory claiming war, I don't know what would be one."

"I know, right?"

"They're really talkin about me while I'm standin right here, aren't they?" Lila asked her aunts who giggled and then said "The fact that you don't see what we do remains hilarious."

"Glad you four are laughin it up. Let's go already. .I wanna go swim before it gets too dark." Lila whined as they all walked out of the diner and down to the pier. On the walk down, Lila wondered to herself just who in this town she'd meet next..

And why Logan or Diego kept popping up when she least expected them.

A FEW NOTES FROM THE WRITER

**_First of all, I am loving the fact that you guys love this so far. I started writing it after hearing the below mentioned song, and it's become one of my favorites to write. I want to personally thank everyone who's been reviewing and adding it to their favorites list._**

_**Pairings for Lila, the choices rather, are Johnny, Logan or Diego and maybe Spinelli .. Everyone else is either related, or not a favorite of mine, not someone I can tap into easily.**_


	11. Chapter 11

"And coming at you live, chicks and dudes, it's Lila with another edition of Straight from the Heart. Before I even start my show tonight, I want to give shoutouts.. Daddy, I love you.. Don't work too hard tonight.. Mom, please for the love of Christ do NOT get trapped in a vehicle or something at work tonight. Be want to say hi to my grandmothers, my aunts, hell, all my family, really... And for my little buddy.. Danny, this song is for you. " as she slid a cd into the drive, smiled, kicking her red boots up on the desk, sipping the last of the first soda of the night. She looked around her booth, her eyes falling on the pictures of her family all over it as the music played.

She'd been here a while now, she was really beginning to love this, having a family she finally felt like she fit into. She slid her phone out of her cut offs pockets, slid it to unlock, started to play Candy Crush Saga for a while.

She looked up when she heard knocking on the window of her booth, and she nearly spat all the remainder of her soda out when she looked up, saw her cousin Janey, pressing her face up against the glass, screwing up her face into a creepy expression, laughing when she saw Lila lose composure, crack up on air. Seconds later, Lila got up and after digging around, found her change for the vending machine, joined her cousin Janey as she remarked grimly, "Is it just me, or do all the freaks come outta hiding on the 13th?"

"Not just you. Some fucking creeper's been making calls about vampires being real all fucking night. Kind of creepy if you ask me." Janey mused as Lila sipped her soda, watched her cousin. She realized that her mom and her dad didn't actually LIKE her uncle Franco, but the scant hand fulls of times Lila met the guy, he seemed okay.. And he wasn't nearly as creepy as this Stephen Clay jerk, so..

She gave him the benefit of the doubt, mostly because she loved having her real family around and she didn't want to limit herself to just her immediate family.

"So.. You heard that urban legend about the abandoned frat house just off campus, right?" Lila asked, giggling a little. She knew Janey didn't seem to spook easily, not like her aunts Kristina and Molly, or her newest friends, Maxie and Lulu.

"The murder suicide thing? Yeah.. It's probably bullshit though, you know that right, Lil?"

"Yeah, but.. I do have that app on my phone.. The ghost hunting tools?"

Janey's eyes danced a moment and she smirked as she said "Are you suggesting?"

"Yeah.. Oh yeah.. Totally.. We go on a ghost hunt tonight."

"Hmm..."

"What?"

"Nothing, I just.. I could have sworn I saw a guy in a leather trench coat slipping into your booth is all, Lil."

Lila swore and looked around. She'd seen Stephen Clay lurking earlier, he'd tried to talk to her again, it hadn't went well because her father saw him, and after punching him a few times, he'd warned Lila to steer clear of the guy at all costs.

"What the hell are you gonna do, Lil?" Janey asked as she studied her cousin intently, sipped her soda before muttering, "What the fuck, right? Can't talk 'em out of it, join 'em. At least this way nothing happens to ya."

Lila was about to say something in response when all the lights in the studio went out. From up the hallway, they heard Dillon yelling, swearing as he looked out into darkness, only a dim Mag Lite in his hand.

"Shit.. Lila?"

"Yeah?"

"Somebody's actually IN your booth." Janey muttered as she slid the heavily studded black leather belt from around her waist, wrapped it around her knuckles, started to tiptoe towards the booth, crouching down.

"What the hell are you gonna do, Janey?"

"Shhh, damn it. Just gonna scare whoever this happens to be." Janey hissed as she hit her stomach, crawled a little to keep from being seen. "Are you fuckin insane, Janey?" Lila hissed from behind as she crawled to catch up. They were family, Lila wasn't going to let Janey do this on her own. Besides, Lila was kind of pissed that someone would even be nosing around in her booth.

"Shh, damn it, Lil. I'm tellin ya, this is probably just some fucking idiot, tryin to screw with all of us. They obviously knew that the station would be pretty much empty." Janey hissed as she looked up, found herself in front of the door to her cousins booth, Lila now right behind her, slipping a battered and well used Scouts knife into her hand.

"If you're gonna scare 'em, Janey.. at least use the fuckin knife, yeah?"

"Good point, Lil." Janey whispered back as Lila's cell phone lit up, then Janeys, a text from Dillon.

"Whatever it is tha thinking, stop where u r."

Janey texted back quickly, "Not gonna happen, Dil. It's probably just some 1 playing stupid prank."

"U can't ever b 2 careful." Dillon's next text read as she looked at Lila and asked, "You ready?"

"Born ready, Jane."

"Let's do this, Lil."

The two girls stood up and were just about to kick the door open when the lights all came back on, all the equipment roared back to life, and they both saw it then.

A dummy hanging from the roof support in Lila's booth.

"What the holy fuck?" Janey gasped at the dummy, biting her dark red lower lip.

Dillon ran down when Lila screamed and then looking at the dummy asked, "You two alright?"

"Yeah.." Lila muttered as Janey bit her lower lip, looked at the dummy again, brow raised. "Hey, there's something pinned to it.."

"Jane.. Not a good idea.."

"Yeah, I'm with Lil, Jane.. The farther you are from that thing.." Dillon said as Janey held up her finger, walked towards it.

Dillon stepped into the hallway to call the police station, hoping he'd catch Dante, Logan or Diego at work and Lila stepped into the hallway to text her father, the only guy she really trusted to save her ass, should she need it.

"Someone should text Franco. I get the feeling that whatever this is, it's not just a little joke." Dillon remarked as he scrolled through his phone, highlighted his mother's number, texted explaining the situation, telling her that she might have to call Janey's father.

Janey walked back out and said quietly, "The words TMK mean anything to anyone?"

"Oh hell.. Dillon, isn't that.." Lila asked as she bit her lip, looked at her cousin in concern. She knew it still hurt him whenever he'd bring up the subject of Georgie.

"It is."

"He's the guy who killed her.." Dillon muttered as Janey held out the note by it's edge.

"Why come back now?"

"Jane.. I have no idea.." Dillon muttered as he said "Dante and the guys are on their way over. Lila, go call your dad, Janey, you should probably call yours.. There is no way in hell I'm staying to finish out my shift."

"But if we leave.. Won't the guy realize there's something up?"

"She does have a point, Dil.. Whoever this happens to be.. They obviously want us to hear them out.."

"Are you two insane? Do you not realize just how much damage this guy did back then? And he's back now? Diego's not gonna be happy, not in the slightest.. He just got his rap cleared for it.. He just got his life back.. So did Logan."

Janey raked her hand through her blonde hair as she bit her lower lip and then said "Guys? I just heard the basement door open."

The three 20 somethings looked at each other again and froze for a moment. What the hell was going on here tonight?

Before any of them could really say anything, the doors at the end of the hallway slammed shut, locked.

"Oh.. That's not good."

"No, it's not."

When the lights went off again, they all looked at one another and groaned simultaneously.

And down the hallway, in a darkened long forgotten booth, the masked figure took a seat, crossed their arms behind their head and surveyed their handiwork. It was good to be back, it really was. And now, the brother that got chosen over him by their father, well.. He was going to pay.

* * *

Jason pulled himself from underneath the chassis of the Camaro and put down the welding torch, glancing at his phone. He smiled as he heard his daughter's voice come over the radio playing in the back area of the shop, broadcasting her country music / advice show. She'd gotten the bad straw tonight, wound up working the night shift because the usual girl got sick and couldn't make it in. Jason hadn't wanted to let her go in, but Sam ultimately reminded him that she had a good head on her shoulders, she'd be safe and of course, if anything happened, he'd be getting a call, from her, just like she always did.

"Yeah, thanks for that, Lila. Now your brother's going to be trying to sing that one all the time." he laughed as he stepped back, surveyed the Camaro carefully. He and Lila had been working on this one together, and it'd come together relatively quickly. "I'll wait on the rest of the painting." he muttered as he walked over to the cooler in the shop area, grabbing a soda and gulping it down.

His cell phone rang and he smiled as he saw Sam's face fill the screen.

"yeah babe, I was just closing the shop." he laughed as Sam explained to him about their supper, how it got burnt earlier, and how Danny was teething again, he was miserable.

"Did you get anywhere on that dead body Anna wanted you to look into?"

"Dead ends all over."

"I'm leaving now, babe." Jason said as they hung up. He felt his jeans pockets, realized that his wallet AND his handgun were still in the shop. Luckily, he went back in for them because not even ten minutes later, he got a text from both Carly AND his daughter.

He read the one from Carly first and grumbled, worry and concern rising in him as he texted back, "What's going on radio station?"

"All I know is Janey txtd Franco and said all 3 of them were stuck inside, some 1 cut the power and shut off the security system."

Then he read the text from his daughter and texted back, "Do Not leave ur area. Wherever you 3 r, stay put. I mean it, Lila."

And then as if he were on autopilot, he grabbed his handgun, opening the clip, making sure it was loaded as he growled, "If it's this Clay bastard, I swear to God, they will need SWAT to get me off of him when it's all said and done."

He drove home, probably breaking the land speed record, just as Sam ran to the door, Danny in her arms. "Did Lila text you?"

"Mhmm.. If it's Clay, Sam, he's dying tonight. I could give zero fucks less about any laws right now.. If my little girl is hurt, I'm killing someone."

"The last thing she sent me was that the guys from PCPD were outside trying to figure out how to override the scrambler someone put on the building's electrical box to turn off the power and shut down the system.. I think I heard Logan arguing them all that come hell or high water he'd break a damn window if he had to."

"Yeah, no.. My little girl, I'll handle this."

"Jason, we both need to be calm.. For all we know this is a prank." Sam reminded her husband, though on the inside, she was every bit as scared and angry as he was. She was mostly holding it together at the moment for Danny. Molly and Rafe showed up to watch Danny and Sam and Jason left.

"Did you have to bring every gun in the house?"

"Mhmm."

"I love the way you protect us all, baby.. But we don't want you in prison either.."

"Sam.. You grabbed both of your handguns, babe, so do not even play that way." Jason said as he leaned over and ksised her cheek to calm them both down. "Maybe you're right.. Maybe this is just a prank.. Carly texted about the same time as Lila and she said that Janey seemed to think it was."

"God.. That's another thing that worries me.. Those two even being in the equation.. With their tempers.. And their 'must be superwoman' ways."

"I told her not to move.. She'll listen, Sam."

"Sure, Jason.. Remember her punching Stephen Clay in the face, even after we told her not to go near the man and to run if she saw him coming near her?"

Jason slammed his foot down onto the gas and sped towards the radio station.. Maybe this was all some prank that got way too far out of hand.. But he had a bad feeling about tonight and he found himself kicking himself for letting her go into work that late.

So did Sam who graoned and said "This is all my fault.. I had a bad feeling, but I didn't wanna make her feel like she was being smothered." as she palmed her forehead.

The sooner they got there, they both thought to themselves, the better off they'd be.

* * *

**( A/NS:)**

**Oh my God, I'm pleasantly surprised by the people who actually LIKE this and want me to continue. I wanna thank you all, you're amazing and incredible, and I'm gonna keep this one going. Thinking Logan is the way to go with this one, for Lila. They seem to fit one another when I write out their interactions..  
**

**I was inspired by watching Urban Legends earlier.. I'm not sure what the hell will happen next in all honesty.. I do have a vague idea of what I want to happen, beyond that, no clue. Hope you guys are having a killer (pun intended) almost Friday 13th. By the way, this chapter is in BOTH of my GH stories. It's not a mistake, Janey and Lila are cousins after all.. SO the stories will be joined in some chapters, representing story arcs I've come up with. Hope you all enjoy this, and like that idea, and it doesn't annoy. Each joined chapter will be slightly different here and there. :)**

**Oh, I realize that I've mentioned Georgie as being alive in the stories.. She isn't, I mistakenly left that part in, and am going to go back and edit that accordingly, soon. Sorry about that, but she is dead, guys. Or is she? - evil laughs-**


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